Americans for the Arts Action Fund PAC Issues Congressional Report Card on the Arts

Americans for the Arts Action Fund PAC Issues Congressional Report Card on the Arts

Forty-One House Members Get Highest Possible Grade; Best State Delegations Are Vermont, Maine and Hawaii

WASHINGTON, Oct. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- The Americans for the Arts Action Fund PAC issued today its Congressional Arts Report Card. The Report Card, which covers the 109th Congress (2005-2006), addresses only the U.S. House of Representatives, since the U.S. Senate has taken no arts-specific votes during that period. However, certain Senators are spotlighted for their specific arts leadership efforts in The Report Card.

Forty-one House Members received the highest possible grade (A+) - a 24% increase over the previous Congressional Arts Report Card released in 2004. However, the average grade for the House remained a B. The Report Card shows that arts support is increasingly bipartisan. The entire Report Card containing the grades of every Member of the House of Representatives can be found online at www.ArtsActionFund.org.

"This Report Card provides a compelling way for the public to assess the level of support that each Member of the House of Representatives provides for the arts as we approach election day," said Robert L. Lynch, president of Americans for the Arts Action Fund and treasurer of its PAC. "Overall, it shows that a convincing majority of the House favors modest funding increases for the NEA, and an even larger majority opposes any cuts."

The Report Card assigns each Member of the House of Representatives a letter grade and numerical score based on his or her voting record on specific arts and arts education policy issues. Nine separate government actions are covered, and each is weighted based on its importance to the arts - with the greatest weight given to three votes on funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). A perfect score equals 100 points, and the points are correlated to a letter grade of A+ through F. The Report Card also includes a detailed arts voting record for each Member.

When the grades of the Members of each state delegation in the House of Representatives are averaged on a state-by-state basis, the highest-scoring state delegations are Vermont, Maine and Hawaii. Each of these states is part of the top six previously in the 2004 Congressional Arts Report Card. Similarly, Wyoming and Alaska received the lowest grades for this report as in 2004. These statistics reflect the fact that these states each have only one or two members, who were the same members in 2004. A complete list of the state delegation scores is attached.

Americans for the Arts Action Fund and its connected PAC add a new dimension to arts advocacy in the United States by providing a vehicle through which any citizen can help ensure that all Americans have the opportunity to appreciate, value, and participate in the arts. Additional information on the Americans for the Arts Action Fund, including information on how to join, is available at www.ArtsActionFund.org.

Following is the listing of the average scores of the delegations of each state and national region in the U.S. House of Representatives: (The District of Columbia is not included, because its Representative does not have voting status.)

State Rankings
U.S. House of Representatives

State Rank Rank Average Average Average Average
2006 2004 State State State State
Scores Scores Grade Grade
2006 2004 2006 2004

AK 49 48 25 18 D D
AL 30 39 (tie) 55 35 C C
AR 8 13 88 79 A B
AZ 44 36 36 37 C C
CA 21 17 (tie) 68 67 B B
CO 47 45 28 30 C C
CT 9 2 (tie) 85 98 B A
DE 5 2 (tie) 91 98 A A
FL 29 32 (tie) 55 44 C C
GA 40 32 (tie) 44 44 C C
HI 3 2 (tie) 99 98 A A
IA 31 23 (tie) 55 54 C B
ID 36 39 (tie) 50 35 C C
IL 17 15 76 72 B B
IN 45 39 (tie) 34 35 C C
KS 42 37 (tie) 43 36 C C
KY 20 47 71 26 B D
LA 25 31 64 46 B C
MA 4 5 94 97 A A
MD 10 11 (tie) 84 82 B B
ME 2 6 100 96 A+ A
MI 16 21 76 62 B B
MN 23 19 (tie) 65 64 B B
MO 43 44 43 32 C C
MS 39 42 (tie) 46 34 C C
MT 26 46 63 29 B D
NC 38 27 (tie) 48 49 C C
ND 22 9 66 89 B A
NE 27 25 61 53 B B
NH 14 19 (tie) 79 64 B B
NJ 12 11 (tie) 82 82 B B
NM 37 27 (tie) 49 49 C C
NV 33 35 53 38 C C
NY 6 10 89 88 A A
OH 24 22 65 55 B B
OK 48 42 (tie) 25 34 D C
OR 13 14 82 77 B B
PA 15 16 77 71 B B
RI 11 7 83 95 B A
SC 32 30 54 47 C C
SD* 28 no rank 56 no score C INC
TN 19 23 (tie) 72 54 B B
TX 41 27 (tie) 43 49 C C
UT 46 37 (tie) 31 36 C C
VA 35 34 51 43 C C
VT 1 1 110 100 A+ A+
WA 18 17 (tie) 75 67 B B
WI 34 26 52 50 C B
WV 7 8 89 93 A A
WY 50 49 19 8 D D

* South Dakota is "incomplete" because the delegation's sole member took ffice part way through the Congressional term.

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact:

Source: Americans for the Arts Action Fund PAC

CONTACT: Beth Olsen, of Goodman Media for Americans for the Arts,
+1-212-576-2700 x243, or bolsen@goodmanmedia.com

Web site: http://www.artsactionfund.org/

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